


The Two Of Us

by Atsuko_Cavendish



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Trans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-07-08 03:12:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15921608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atsuko_Cavendish/pseuds/Atsuko_Cavendish
Summary: Akko has a bad day, and Diana does everything she can to help her friend, to make her feel safe again.Warning: the second chapter is pretty intense, there is attempted suicide.if that's not something you can handle, then skip directly to chapter 3, or just don't read the story





	1. A Stressful Day

It was a lovely and bright morning at Luna Nova.

But Diana couldn’t enjoy it, she didn’t get enough sleep last night. It was the third week since they had defeated the missile. And if she didn’t keep her mind busy her thoughts constantly drifted off to Akko. Her bright and cheery smile, her cute attitude of wanting to make everyone happy, her smooth legs and too short skirt, how soft her skin was when they held hands at the edge of space,...

NO, she absolutely couldn’t think about such things. She had to focus on something else, quick.

 

“Morning Diana, you up yet?” Hannah peeked around the corner of the bookshelf dividing their room.

“Hmm? Oh, yes, I’m awake. I’ll be with you two in a second.”

“Okay, then I’ll prepare some tea for you.” Hannah disappeared behind the books again.

“You know, you should probably sleep a bit longer if you have trouble falling asleep every night.” Barbara was right about that, but it was impossible. As soon as Diana was awake Akko was in her head again, smiling widely and calling for her attention. To get rid of these thoughts she had to immediately get up and do something, anything, to keep her mind busy.

She got dressed as quick as she could, put on some makeup to hide the rings under her eyes and brushed her hair. Then she went to the other side of her room to face her roommates. If they were to find out about her thoughts, she couldn’t even imagine how they would react.

 

“Your tea is on the table” Hannah mumbled, holding a hairband in her mouth while preparing her trademark ponytail.

“Thank you very much.” Diana sat down, put two cubes of sugar in her cup, poured in the tea from the kettle and started to drink.

“Seriously, don’t overdo it, we’re worried about you.” Barbara sat down next to her on the couch. “Today we only have afternoon classes, maybe you and Hannah should just go and spend the day together, better than you burying yourself in your studies all day or helping the teachers with things they can do just fine on their own. I can’t come with you, I promised Lotte we’d do this quiz she found. ‘Which Nightfall character are you?’, sounds fun.”

“Again? You’re spending more time with Lotte than with me nowadays.” Hannah frowned while checking her done ponytail in the mirror, then she sat down at the other side of Diana.

Diana gave the redhead a look, not an angry one, more sad, almost disappointed. "Hannah, you've spent your whole childhood by Barbara's side. She’s allowed to have more friends besides the two of us.”

“Thanks Diana, and I promise I’ll be there just for you for the entire weekend, okay Hannah?”

“Okay, fine. But don’t you dare look at anyone but me that weekend, you hear me.”

“Of course,” Barbara said as she put down her hastily emptied cup, “I promise it’ll be time just for you and me, nobody else allowed. But now I have to go, see you at lunch.”

Within seconds she rushed out of the room. Hannah remained, frowning.

“Urgh, this is soooo not right. She’s supposed to be my best friend, and mine alone.”

These thoughts seemed awfully familiar to Diana. Too familiar. She blinked a few times to stop the train of thoughts she could feel coming up.

“She has always been mine and I want her back.” Hannah started to frown.

Diana looked her in the eyes and raised an eyebrow. “Hannah, forgive me if this might be too intruding, but do you by any chance have feelings for Barbara?”

“What? Of course I do, she’s my best friend!”

“That’s not what I meant. Have you considered your feelings might possibly be stronger than just friendship?”

“Stronger than friendship? What could there be that’s stronger than…

Oooooooooooh.” Hannah’s jaw dropped, her eyes three times larger than usual.

Diana could see how her face slowly became more and more red.

“Wait, what? Nonononononono, that can’t be. She and I? Together? B-But how? Would that even be legal?”

Yes, this all felt very familiar to Diana. She rested her hand on Hannah’s arm.

“Calm down and collect your thoughts. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. And to answer your last question: yes, it very much is legal.” Nothing to be ashamed of. Yeah, for Hannah maybe. But for her? She was a Cavendish, maybe the most important family in the whole magic society, the last living ancestors of one of the Nine Olde Witches. Even her mom had hidden the fact she was in love with a low non-magical shoemaker and instead had raised her on their summer vacation house for a few years and told everyone that her father was the at that time recently deceased brother of the Earl of Hanbridge. Since she looked like a carbon copy of her mother and the two families had always been close nobody had ever asked any questions.

Enough with these thoughts, a friend needed her help!

“So, if there is anything I can do for you, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“T-thanks Diana. This is a lot to process right now.”

“Yes, it most certainly is a sudden realization. You should try to calm down, drink your tea. You haven’t even touched your cup yet.”

“Y-you’re right. This is completely normal, and I should try to behave normal.” Hannah’s hands were shaking as she took a sip of her tea. Diana was concerned she might spill some, so with a quick flick of her wand she stabilized the cup and Hannah gave her a thankful smile.

“Shall we sit here longer or would you like to go somewhere else? I wanted to go to the library to study some more, but currently you’re more important.”

“Uhm, I don’t know. Maybe we should just go and get breakfast.”

“Alright, then let’s go.”

The girls put away the tea set and went over to the cafeteria.

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
  


Diana and Hannah couldn’t believe their eyes. Avery just ignored them completely when they greeted her. And she seemed somehow off. 

And then she proceeded to go straight up to Akko and put a leg so she would trip.

Avery had always been mean to Akko, this wasn’t new. What was however was that Diana believed to see some sort of red glow in her eyes for a second when Akko fell.

No, that was just her imagination because she didn’t get enough sleep in the last weeks.

Luckily Lotte was there and helped Akko up right away, so there was no need for Diana to get involved. But she needed to have a stern talk with the troublemaker later.

For now her friend and roommate was more important.

“So, is there anything I can do for you?” Diana asked while pouring orange juice.

“At the moment I don’t think so. I need to find out if Barbs likes me back in the same way, that’s something I have to do on my own. But how should I go about it?”

“I could very well ask for you if you want me to.”

“What? No! This is something I have to do on my own, you of all people should understand how it is to want to take care of their problems by themself.”

“Hehe” Diana chuckled, “you’re right there. Very well, I’ll let you handle it. But if you change your mind I’m here any time.”

“Of course you are, and thank you very much. Hey, different topic, did Avery seem weird to you as well?”

“She actually did. I mean it’s not like she had done anything unusual, she always treats poor Akko like that and not greeting us isn’t extraordinarily weird either, she  _ is _ a very moody witch. But something was off about her, I felt a cold shiver when I looked in her eyes.”

“Huh,” Hannah shrugged, “maybe she just ate something bad, or she has problems with her sleep like you. It’s probably nothing.”

 

After breakfast they headed out to the glasshouse. Hannah had taken a liking to gardening, so the two took care of a few of the magical flowers she was raising for a class project.

After that they went and helped Professor Pisces prepare the handouts for the first afternoon class.

During lunch Barbara noticed Hannah being awfully reserved and avoiding eye contact. But Hannah denied, saying everything would be completely fine and she’d be overthinking.

“Maybe you’re just seeing drama while there isn’t any since you’ve got your nose stuck in those weird books all day.”

Diana couldn’t help but chuckle a little, it was kinda cute seeing those two being so oblivious of each other’s feelings.

The rest of the afternoon came and went uneventful. Classes were as boring to Diana as always, with her already knowing anything the teachers would say for the rest of the year.

Maybe there really was nothing Diana could learn here anymore. But she loved this school so very much and enjoyed her time here, so she would make sure to make the best of it. Maybe she could even become a teacher herself. She had enjoyed the few times Akko came to her for help. And she didn’t only enjoy it because it was Akko, she liked explaining magic to others, making them understand the wonders of alteration, potion brewing, and all the other wonderful possibilities there were to learn.

Yes, a future as a teacher. She had never before considered it but the idea made her happy. Finally a real goal, not just ‘restore the Cavendish family to its former glory’ which wasn’t even her dream, it was something she felt forced to do. To prove herself as a true Cavendish even though her father hadn’t been worthy of being part of the family. But she didn’t care, every year on his birthday she went to visit him for a day. They chatted, ate ice cream, he fixed up her shoes or made new ones when the old ones became too small.

It was a wonderful time, and Diana didn’t care what anyone would think. She loved her father and she wouldn’t let those rich snobs tell her what she could or couldn’t do.

These thoughts let a single tear run down her cheek which she immediately brushed away before anyone could notice. She didn’t want to be seen crying, especially not during classes.

 

At dinner she only sat there and smiled, looking at Hannah being helpless and Barbara being clueless once again. It was just too funny.

At the whole way back to their room Hannah was awkwardly hiding behind Diana, not able to face the roommate she had such an obvious crush on.

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
  


It was midnight.

The room was completely quiet, except for the soft and calm breathing of Barbara and Hannah mumbling Barbara’s name in her sleep.

Once again a night where Diana couldn’t fall asleep, only having a certain japanese brunette on her mind. It was now almost a year since they started school, since Akko had suddenly opened a leyline portal in the middle of the opening ceremony and just appeared in front of her eyes, holding the Claiomh Solais in her hand and smiling the widest smile she had ever seen. She could still remember how her heart skipped a beat. It was this moment Diana had realized why exactly she had never given any thought about boys, why she had been a bit jealous of Andrew when he was surrounded by girls while she was practicing magic when they were children.

From this day on, Akko had always done amazing things that had impressed her greatly. The clumsy girl from that far away country, who couldn’t even control her own magic, noticed what she thought to be parasites were in fact  Pappiliodya cocoons and saved them.

She flew on the Shooting Star, a broom that was said not to be able to used by any witch.

She managed to free the spirit of Vajarois from her sorrow which nobody before had even noticed.

Together with Constanze she had built a giant robot and fought a monster created by what turned out to be Croix’ MagiTek.

She had even helped her become the head of the Cavendish family and fight against her crazy aunt. Even though it didn’t work in the end because her aunt and her cousins being turned into trees was something she just couldn’t let happen, no matter what they had done. They were still family after all.

And finally the two of them, with travel help of her friends, fought against a missile overtaken by gone rogue MagiTek, and while winning even restored the magical tree of Yggdrasil in the world. Together they had started the second golden age of magic.

And then they stood together on Shooting Star, holding hands at the edge of space.

Diana’s face was glowing bright red while she remembered the warmth of the other girl’s hand. How Akko’s expression was happy and sad at the same time when she gave her beloved Shiny Rod back to the stars.

Diana’s biggest wish, her restoring magic in the world, had become true with the help of this amazing, cute and beautiful girl she couldn’t stop thinking about.

How many more adventures would they go on together in the future?

Wait, a future together? Diana couldn’t possibly expect Akko to feel the same way for her.

There was no future together. Or was there? Diana was about to go mad from the uncertainty.

The magical society surely wouldn’t accept Akko as Diana’s partner, not a girl who was out to be the next Shiny Chariot. But what did Diana care what some old rich snobs were thinking? Her mother might have been scared, but she was not. 

 

But would Akko even be able to accept her if she knew about the past. About the circumstances Diana was born in. Yes, she now fully was a girl, down to her genetic code. The spell to give her the female body she always longed for was the last thing her mother did for her.

She couldn’t possibly have lived as a boy, when she was four years old and started to speak and understand she already knew there was something wrong with her. She always fought getting her hair cut until her mother laughed and gave up. When she was six she read the name Diana in a book and insisted on her parents using that for her.

Her father was a bit scared she would be rejecting him, but she never had any intentions in doing so. She spent lots of time with him and tried to explain that this was just about her, that she had to fix something without knowing what exactly it was.

After that they both wholeheartedly supported her efforts. When her mother took her to Cavendish Manor for the first time and introduced her to society she was wearing a beautiful blue and white dress and got introduced as Diana Cavendish, beloved daughter of Bernadette Cavendish and Jacob Hanbridge (may he rest in peace). She still remembered herself, her mother and her father standing next to his bed, asking if it was okay to tell this story. His words, said with a wide but weak smile, still echoed in her head: “How could I say no to such close friends of my family, especially such a cute little girl.”

The Hanbridges really were nice people, and she was grateful for all they had done for her, even if Jacob’s brother was such a stubborn, magic hating person.

And Andrew had always been a close friend as well. Yes, they had been teasing each other as long as she knew him, but when it really counted he was always there to protect her and her secret.

Him constantly teasing her about the girl attached to her sleeve was annoying though.

But it was true, ever since that ball at the Hanbridges’ villa, Akko had always been nearby when Diana and Andrew were seeing each other.

 

A sudden noise of rustling clothes snapped her out of her thoughts.

She went around the bookshelf and could see in the moonlight that Hannah and Barbara were still sleeping peacefully. She wondered if she had only imagined it when she noticed something in the corner of her eye. An envelope being pushed into the room under the door. When it was completely inside the room she could hear steps getting more and more quiet as they went away. They sounded familiar, but she couldn’t really place them in her mind.   
She waited until the steps were fully gone, then slowly and careful not to wake her roommates she went to pick up the letter.  _ To Diana  _ was the only thing written on it, in a handwriting she immediately recognized.

Diana immediately opened the letter, not caring anymore if her roommates might wake up. She read the letter as fast as she could. After the third sentence her heart stopped. She quickly scanned over the rest of it only to read that sentence over a few more times and then pinched her arm to make sure this wasn’t just a silly dream.

It was not.

She immediately dropped the letter and rushed over to her closet, got dressed as fast as she could, grabbed her broom and raced out the room.


	2. The Worst Day Of Her Life

It was a lovely and bright morning at Luna Nova.

But not for Akko. She woke up from a nightmare in which her fight against the missile went badly. First Diana got eaten by the gigantic mouth the missile had for some reason, then it just raced away while she couldn’t keep up and it exploded. After that she fell…

Fell out of bed.

Leaves went everywhere and while she rubbed her head she noticed why. Sucy had tested another of her annoying potions, transforming her hair into leaves and vines.

“What’s going on?” a sleepy voice came from above her.

“Lotteeeee. Sucy messed with my hair while I was sleeping.”

Lotte climbed down, put on her glasses, and with a flick of her wand Akko’s head was back to normal.

“Lame, you’re always ruining my fun.”

“Sucy! Can’t you see you’re being mean to Akko? She’s been through so much.”

“She’s fine, she can handle a potion or two.”

BANG

A big red mark appeared on Sucy’s face. Lotte’s jaw dropped and her glasses slid slightly off her nose as she realized Akko just had had enough and slapped Sucy.

“What in the-” Sucy was left fully dumbfounded.

The three of them just stood there not saying a single word for five minutes.

 

“Lotte, tell Sucy that I’m not going to talk to her again, she’s a dumb old meanie and I don’t want to be her friend anymore.”

“Ehhhhhh?” Lotte had finally gotten her voice back, her glasses still sitting a bit crooked.

“Wow, and now she’s being dramatic because you’re always protecting her.” Sucy had found her words again as well.

“I told you this would happen. You’re always…”

Akko had enough. She didn’t want to listen anymore. She hastily put on her clothes and rushed out of the room.

She wanted to be alone with her thoughts, so she went to the bathroom for her morning routine before she would meet anyone else.

Why did she have this dream every night in the last week?

And why was she always more shocked about the loss of Diana than about the impact of the missile?

Diana had been on her mind a lot lately. Every free second she could think about nothing but that soft smile she always gave her.

The firm grip of her hand when they were watching Shiny Rod go back to its rightful place amongst the stars.

The way the light reflected on her perfect golden hair.

Those eyes, blue like the ocean, that she could sink into for hours.

Those long and smooth legs she wanted to touch so badly.

Wait, what? No, she couldn’t have thoughts like that. It was distracting her from her goal of becoming the next Shiny Chariot.

  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  


After finishing her morning routine Akko had went straight to the cafeteria for dinner. Only to have someone make her trip up and spread her cornflakes all over the floor. And of course the lunch goblin refused to give her a second bowl, so all she had left was one small dry cookie. Luckily Lotte was there to help her up and gave her her glass of milk.

Sucy on the other hand just stood at the side and giggled. Unbelievable, and to think she had called this person her friend.

When she was done eating what could barely be considered a meal she immediately went out to the training field to do some more broom practice.

She now could lift off and hover, and if she concentrated hard enough she could slowly move forward; turning, altering height or anything other necessary for it to be considered flying weren’t possible yet. No progress at all in three weeks. It was getting really frustrating.

But she was not going to give up just yet, she wanted to be able to fly side by side with Diana and show her what a great witch she truly was.

Wait, why was Diana in her thoughts again?

SPLASH

She shook her head only to fall off her broom into the pond she had hovered onto while being sunk into her thoughts.

After climbing out of the water and lying down on the grass in the sun to dry off she checked herself for any injuries. Another two cuts on her leg. With how many she now had Diana surely wouldn’t want to touch them.

Wait, what? Diana again? Why was miss perfect always in her thoughts. Well, because she was indeed perfect, so beautiful and calm, always saying the right words. The difference in their lives and families once again all too clear for the distressed japanese girl.

She let her mind drift. Remembered everything that had happened since she arrived at Luna Nova.

All her failures showed up in her mind again, every miscast spell, every crash while trying to ride a broom, how the other girls in her class laughed at her every time, all the teasing because she wasn’t born into a magical family, …

Why couldn’t she remember the nice things?

Well, there was one nice thing about these thoughts she had never realized before. While everyone else was teasing her, Diana had never done it. In fact now that she thought about it Diana had always given anyone who laughed at Akko angry looks. Could it possibly be because Diana liked Akko? No, that was impossible. It was probably just her love for magic itself, and their laughter derailing classes more than Akko’s failures did. But why couldn’t the teachers see it that way? Why was she always the one not only being scolded for her failures but also for the rest of the class making fun of those?

She made a long, annoyed groan.

  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  


After drying off and having an uneventful and unfilling lunch alone in a corner away from anyone else she moved on to the afternoon classes.

Another linguistics lesson where she could understand the words professor Pisces said, but not what she tried to say with them.

Another potion exploding in her face in professor Lukić’s class.

Another falling asleep during Chariot’s astronomy class.

Urgh, she even failed her favorite teacher, her idol. And it wasn’t even a hard class, it was like a children’s coloring book, just with stars and serious.

And because she fell asleep she was late for dinner as well. Even though she was sooo hungry.

When she was about to enter the cafeteria someone dragged her into an empty classroom.

“I know your secret, punk!” Avery said in a calm but dangerous sounding voice.

“M-my secret?” Akko swallowed hard. It couldn’t be, how could anyone have found out. Not even Lotte or Sucy knew, and they lived in the same room as her for a whole year now. She was always so careful.

“Yes, you don’t belong here. You’re a fraud.”

But she had always been so good at hiding it. Her voice was within perfect tone and range, her tucking game was on point, she always was either the first or the last in the washing room so nobody would see her shave away the last remaining hairs that hadn’t stopped regrowing yet after three years of hrt.

“You’re a bastard, your mom was just a sidestep for some company douche. Now he feels bad so he gave you money you don’t deserve.”

“Ohhhhhh, that. That shouldn’t be a problem now, should it? Even if he doesn’t live with me, he’s still my dad, and fathers care for their children.”

“Whatcha mean ‘Oh that’? Is there more to uncover, any other dirty secrets in your past?”

Oh no, she slipped up, this was going to end badly if she couldn’t get away quickly.

She tried to walk towards the door, but Avery grabbed her wrist and turned her around, twisting her ankle.

“Ouch, let go of me. That hurts.”

“So what. You don’t belong here. And you’re a bastard.”

“I. SAID. LET. GO.” Akko pulled out her wand and cast the only spell she had fully perfected by now, “Diphulaniado!”

Avery got thrown back at the wall and between all the dust and smoke the explosion had created she for a second thought to see a weird reddish shimmer in Avery’s eyes.

She was scared and wanted to get away as quick as possible. But on her way to the door she tripped. Now of all times this had to happen, great.

With a swish if her wand Avery cleared the room. Seconds later she had pulled Akko up and pressed her against a wall, holding both of her hands and making her unable to cast more magic. It was as if the explosion had made her stronger.

“Wow, I would have never expected that. You’re actually a guy. How disgusting.”

Akko swallowed even harder than the first time. Of course her tuck came undone when she tripped after that explosion. How could she have been so dumb. She should have just transformed into a mouse and ran away, she was so good at running when she was small.

She couldn’t hold back anymore and started to cry.

“I-it doesn’t matter how I was born,” Akko’s words were almost drowned in her sobbing “I’m a girl at heart and that’s all that’s important.”

“Whoa, really? That was just a guess!” Avery’s laughing was cold and sharp, like a knife. “You’re so gross, maybe you shouldn’t just leave the school, you should go and die. Perverted crossdresser.”

Akko collected all the strength she had left and pulled her legs up, still being held in place by her wrists from Avery’s hands, and kicked her in the stomach with both feet.

That loosened the grip and left her lying on the ground, this time for good. While she was lying there, holding her stomach and mumbling curses Akko ran away.

 

The whole school was going to learn her secret now. Her life was over, absolutely everything. How could she keep going on now?

She couldn’t, and she shouldn’t.

Avery was right, she was a freak, she shouldn’t be here, and she shouldn’t even exist.

While everyone else was still eating dinner Akko went back to her room, the hunger fully forgotten.

 

As soon as she closed the door behind herself she collapsed. How could this have happened. Now someone knew her secret. It was just a matter of time until everyone knew. The failure of a non-witch, the laughing stock of the school was actually a guy in drag.

Akko laid down on her bed, grabbed her Alcor plush and cried. This was the worst day in her life. And there was nobody she could trust, nobody she could go to. All she could do was be alone in her room and cry as she drifted off to sleep.

 

The ring of the bell to indicate the end of dinner time woke her up.

Sucy and Lotte weren’t back yet. Good. She needed to act fast if she wanted to gain a small rest of control over her life. If Avery ruined Akko’s life, why shouldn’t Akko ruin hers in exchange?

She quickly grabbed her feather and ink, some paper and envelopes and went to one of the unused classrooms in the abandoned wing of the school. Here she was alone and could think in peace.

  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  


When she was finally done writing her letters it was already night. Great. This way nobody could stop her from acting on her plan. Quietly she went back to her room and shoved the letter labeled _To Lotte_ under the door into the room. Onwards to the next one. The letter for Amanda, Constanze and Jasminka was just as easy to place. The third would be difficult.

 

As expected, Chariot wasn’t sleeping yet. Akko thought it might come to this. Around this time Chariot was preparing star maps for her classes, and thinking of the past. She had been around often enough to know her idol’s entire daily routine. As quiet as possible she snuck up to the door and stuck the letter in the loose corner of the tiny window in the middle of the door. Now it would fall down when Chariot opened it the next time, and she would see it immediately.

 

Great, only one letter left, the one that was for some reason the hardest to write.

Why had it been this hard to write a letter to Diana? Why was she tearing up again after every second sentence? The paper was totally ruined, but at least it was still readable.

Even when she wrote Diana’s name on the envelope her hand had been shaking and made the words look less clean than on the others, not that her handwriting was particularly good to begin with.

 

Enough of those thoughts. What weird feelings she did or didn’t have for Diana was irrelevant. What mattered was that she delivered this letter and then went on her way.

  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  


It was cold at the top of New Moon Tower, and Akko was exhausted from the long way up here. But that didn’t matter, nothing ever did.

If everyone hated her, how could she ever become an entertainer like Chariot, a symbol of happiness and hope?

At least she had written those letters, and in them she had made clear it was the whole school, except for the ones that received a letter, who were guilty, but especially Avery.

Akko had a grim smile thinking about that girl getting in trouble for all of this.

 

She slowly walked up to the broom landing plate and let her vision drift over the nightly Luna Nova. One last nice view, it had been so nice of Mistress Holbrooke for letting her come here even though she hadn’t been born into a magic family.

She turned around and leaned back.

“Sayonara!” she softly whispered as she dropped down, only to catch a glimpse of a blue shimmer the last second she could see the Sorcerer Stone’s room. A face she now had known for a long time.

“Oh fuck.” Akko slipped and hit her right leg against the edge of the plate she was standing at. She could feel the pain shooting through her leg as she fell, no, tumbled down uncontrollably.

This was it, she was about to die, not only within seconds because of the impact but also in horrible pain from her broken leg as well. And on top of that Diana had seen her. She had most likely given her a trauma.

A perfect ending to a perfect day.

 

As she fell she saw images and scenes from her life up until now. But it was not her entire life that replayed in front of her eyes like she had always been told.

Instead there was just,

Diana?!?

How could the last thing she ever saw be Diana? As if it hadn’t been enough she was always on Akko’s mind, and always scolding Akko over every mistake she did, now she was also the only person she’d remember during her death.

But this wasn’t so bad. Diana was nice, caring, beautiful and absolutely perfect. If Akko was honest, there was nobody else she’d rather see during her last seconds on earth.

Her stunning and cute smile, how great she looked in a fancy dress, how smooth her skin was, how warm it felt to grab onto her when riding a broom together.

 

Wait, the last thing wasn’t just her memories, it was actually happening right now!

While Akko was falling down with closed eyes Diana had raced after her, successfully catching her mid-air.

“Atsuko Kagari, how could you possibly do something so stupid!”

Oh no, Diana was angry. Well, of course she was.

“I was so worried when I read your letter, thank the nine I managed to catch you before it was too late. Please, never do anything like this ever again.”

Akko wasn’t able to face Diana, she couldn’t bring out a single word.

Diana brought her broom to a halt, the two of them sitting next to each other hovering mid-air with an absolutely stunning view of the whole school, even better than the one at the top of the tower.

After five minutes Akko noticed Diana’s arm had been wrapped around her all this time. She slowly looked over to Diana’s face which was giving her a warm, worried smile.

Their eyes met and suddenly everything else, all the bad things that had happened today, didn’t matter anymore. It was just her and Diana, like back on Shooting Star, or like in the secret hospital at Cavendish Manor.

Diana hugged Akko and she felt like she would just melt from this soft and calming warmth around her. The smell of Diana’s hair made her dizzy.

“I’m so sorry Akko, I should have noticed how much you were given a hard time, I should have been there to protect you. But I promise, from now on I will never leave your side again.”

“D-Diana, could you please let go?”

“Oh, did I hug you too close?”

“No, it was actually really nice. But my leg hurts pretty badly, could we maybe land?”

“Of course, let me find a place where we can relax for a bit and I’ll take a look at your leg as quick as I can.”

 

They landed next to the fountain in the middle of the schoolyard and Diana princess carried Akko over to a bench. Akko was blushing so much she didn’t even notice Diana’s face being red as well. Once Akko was laying down Diana went over to the fountain and tipped her wand into the water while mumbling some spell Akko couldn’t understand.

She was too amazed by the view anyways, the moonlight glittering in the fountain water and in Diana’s hair as well. Those long, wavy streaks of gold Akko had had her face inside of only a few moments ago. She could feel the heat rushing up to her head once again.

“May I take a look at your leg?” Diana had come over from the fountain, her wand entirely covered in light blue glowing water.

“Y-yes, of course” Akko immediately answered an octave too high. After clearing her throat she continued in her usual tone “but please be careful.”

“Don’t worry, this won’t hurt, in fact it will make the pain go away. Sadly I can’t heal broken bones, my healing magic is only on a basic level since I had directed my efforts towards alteration and summoning magic instead of restoration up until now. We’ll have to visit the nursery as soon as it opens up.”

“It’s amazing anyways,” Akko said while Diana was slowly moving her wand over Akko’s leg, the water flowing from the wand onto the leg. “I could probably never get such an advanced spell right, all I can do it weird, miscolored, cartoonish transformations and explosions. Both the ones I want and the ones I don’t want.”

“Well, explosion magic is pretty advanced as well, it’s wild and random. Controlling it is very complicated. Yet you are able to keep it within the boundaries you set it to. Even in class today your potion only combusted in the controlled area of your table, I suppose you were subconsciously keeping it from blowing up the entire classroom.”

“Huh? I didn’t know that, all I know is when I say the word for the spell I imagine a ball in front of my wand, and the explosion stays within that ball.”

“I suppose because your mind itself is using the very same uncontrolled structure as this type of magic it should be easier for you than other magical trees.”

“Oh, and I can sometimes use it to make fireworks, but sometimes it just won’t work. I guess this type of magic is random after all.”

“A bit randomness isn’t something bad now, is it?”

Did Diana just chuckle? Also when had her face become so close? Akko looked down to see the last bit of water disappear into her skin. Her pain was now almost completely gone.

“Wow, thanks Diana, it only feels like a gnat bite now. I think I can hold out until tomorrow morning.”

“That’s good, now let me check if you have any other injuries.”

Seriously, this was way too close, yet Diana kept coming closer to her face, only a few more centimeters and they would be kissing.

Kissing? Akko had to stop these dangerous thoughts, right now.

“I’m fine Diana, there’s nothing else to be worried about. But it’s cold, and I’m tired.”

With a quick movement of her hands Diana detached her coat from her robe and wrapped it around Akko. Then she sat down right next to Akko’s head and moved it onto her lap.

“Is this better? You can sleep now, I’ll be here to protect you, and when you wake up I’ll bring you to the nursery.”

“T-thanks Diana.” Akko was blushing once again while Diana gently brushed her hair.

 

Seriously, what was going on with Diana? She behaved completely different from usual, or rather she didn’t. Now that Akko thought about it Diana had always been this caring, trying to speak a little less fancy so Akko would understand what she was saying, making sure she didn’t get hurt. Akko suddenly remembered the look on Diana’s face when she had jumped in front of that spell to protect the magic butterflies. Always when Diana was aware of Akko being around her attitude changed, but she was subtle about it, nobody seemed to ever notice. And up until now Akko hadn’t either. But if Diana behaved differently around Akko, and tried everything to protect her, did that maybe mean Diana _liked_ her? No, that couldn’t be possible. Diana was too perfect, had way too high standards in society. This was just her following the Cavendish leitmotif: affection. As a Cavendish she was forced to be nice to everyone, and she was nicer to Akko because she felt sorry for her being such a successless witch.

With these thoughts Akko drifted off to sleep.


	3. The Morning After

It was morning.

Diana slowly opened her eyes and blinked to get adjusted to the sunlight shining directly into her face. Suddenly she realized the whole school was gathered. Why were they out here on the yard? Why was she here again?

She looked down and saw Akko still sleeping on her lap, wrapped in her coat, making cute mumbling noises in her sleep.

Diana immediately remembered everything. How she read the letter, ran after Akko only to see her fall anyways, how she used the feather fall spell and caught her mid-air.

How the sight of Akko falling to her death had removed all of Diana’s doubts.

She was in love, and she didn’t care about whoever might not like it. Akko was hers, and she would fight anyone who would dare to hurt Akko.

She blinked one last time and then let her gaze drift over everyone. They all looked scared, shaking. Apparently Akko was a lot more important to the students than she thought. Even professor Finnelan who always complained about Akko was in absolute shock.

 

But there was one face that didn’t look sad or scared. One face that was… disappointed?

Diana got angry, really angry. A fire had been ignited in her chest. She remembered the letter Akko had written. Carefully not to wake her up she lifted Akko’s head and gently put it down on the bench, then she got up. With a flick of her fingers, too fast for the eye to see, she had grabbed her wand and walked up to what was now a malicious grin.

“What exactly did you do, Avery?” Diana asked. There was nothing of the usual composed calmness in her voice, it was pure hatred.

The answer was a simple laugh. “I told that freak the truth. ‘Akko’ doesn’t belong here, should not even exist.”

“I advise you take those words back right this instant. If you apologize I might still be able to forgive you.”

“Apologize for what?” Avery’s mean smile irritated Diana, fueled her anger. “Did ‘she’ even tell you the truth? Do you know who you spent last night with?”

“What are you even talking about? None of your words have the slightest hint of reason behind them.”

“It’s a dude. ‘Akko’ here is actually a guy. Fooled us all. Everyone should be thanking me for making this intruder want to leave.”

Diana couldn’t hold it in anymore. With a flick of her wand Avery started to float while grabbing for her throat. Diana’s hair was waving upwards from all the magic she directed into the spell.

“Akko didn’t want to leave,” Diana almost cried saying these words, “SHE TRIED TO KILL HERSELF!”

Avery’s grin suddenly was gone, replaced with a shocked expression. She blinked a few times and shook her head. Her eyes filled with fear. She started to cry. The white in her eyes almost seemed blue now that the slight hint of a red glow was gone.

Diana immediately realized what was going on. That before, all those mean words and the evil grin, that wasn’t Avery. But this was. She had been under some sort of control spell, and the shock Diana just gave her had woken her up from it. She immediately let the crying girl down. Then she came closer and mustered every single millimeter of her face. Maybe there was some clue on what had taken control. 

Suddenly a hand on her shoulder demanded Diana’s attention.

“What in the world were you thinking? Everyone here knows Akko is important to you, but you can’t just go and attack another student.” Chariot was right. She had overstepped her boundaries. She had done something no proper Cavendish would ever do. But if she hadn’t she would have never known why Avery had been doing what she did.

“I am honestly truly sorry, and I apologize to not only Avery, but to everyone around. However, as you can see, this here is Avery. What I attacked without knowing was something that had possessed her. She should immediately be taken to a safe and secure room where she can recover from what I did and where we can further investigate on what exactly has happened here.”

“P-possessed?” Chariot adjusted her glasses.

“Yes, as you can see very clearly her whole attitude has shifted. And she seems to be confused about her location.”

A cough demanded both of their attention.

“W-what are you s-saying?” Avery’s crying was heartbreaking. “Why would you attack me Diana? Haven’t we always been friends? And why would Akko try to commit suicide?”

Diana put her hand on Avery’s arm. “I am so very sorry, I hope you can forgive me. It seems that you were under foreign control, and whatever or whoever it was made you try to make everyone hate you.”

“And it isn’t over just yet!” Suddenly the crying was gone and Avery’s eyes were glowing red.

She stood up, her arms spread wide out, and started to float.

Diana stumbled back. Whatever it was that had control over Avery, it was powerful.

“Diana” the glow was gone for just a second and her voice became sad and scared again, “help meee… WHAT? SHUT UP, YOU’RE MINE NOW”

Diana knew she had to act fast. “Toru Rirurara!” With a flick of her wand Avery dropped down, snoring.

“Quick, we have to immediately get her somewhere safe.”

“Right, right.” Chariot had finally fully realized the danger of the situation. She waved the other teachers over and they carried the sleeping Avery away.

 

Now Diana had some time to think. What had evil Avery just said? Akko, a guy? No, Akko was obviously a girl. Wait, could it be Akko was the same as her? That she had had the same unfortunate circumstances of birth? Diana sank to her knees from exhaustion. This was a lot to take in.

But this didn’t change anything! She still was in love, and she didn’t care about the circumstances under which Akko had been born. All she wanted to do was to protect her. To be there for her. To make her feel happy again.

“Ouch. Dianaaaaa. You said this would last until I can get proper treatment at the nursery. But now we’re still out here and it hurts again.”

Akko had woken up, and the spell had started to fade.

Amanda helped Diana up. “Hey, you need a hand here with your girlfriend?”

“Yes, thank you very mu - SHE’S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND”

“Haha, sure, tell that to yourself. Anyways, let’s get her some treatment.”

“Yes, right, do you by any chance have your broom with you?”

Amanda had a big smile on her lips. She put two fingers in her mouth and whistled. A few seconds later her broom rushed towards her from the storage hall and hovered at perfect height to climb on.

Diana was impressed. The idea of combining a calling spell and the flight spell into one single whistle never crossed her mind, this was brilliant. She cleared her throat.

“That’s some impressive display of magic. Now, should we get going?”

“Sure thing, mylady.” Amanda bowed down overly fancy which only earned her an exhausted growl from Diana.

With a snap of her fingers Diana brought her broom to float at the same height. Then she took her coat off of Akko and tied the four corners onto the two brooms to create a plane to place her down on. After Akko had been seated carefully her two friends carefully guided the brooms towards the nursery.

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
  


Diana was sitting on Akko’s bed, right next to her, an arm wrapped around her shoulder.

Amanda, Constanze, Jasminka and Lotte sat next to her bed on various chairs Amanda had probably ‘borrowed’ from a nearby classroom.

Akko didn’t care what everyone else did tho. She was too busy eating her third bowl of cereal.   
“Wow, Akko, you must have been really hungry.”

“Yeash, I habn’d had…”

“Akko, could you please swallow before you speak?”

“Showwy” Akko said, and after a big gulp continued “Yeah, I hadn’t had breakfast or dinner yesterday. And lunch wasn’t that great either, I thought the school couldn’t get any cheaper than potatoes every day, but champignon soup with bread is even lower than that.”

“Then enjoy your breakfast now, the goblins made it just for you. In exchange I promised them to prepare some potions to enhance the food quality.”

“I’m sorry you have to do that, but thanks for getting all off this for me.”

“Of course, I will always take care of you, didn’t I promise you last night?” Diana gave her a warm and soft smile.

Akko blushed a bit before continuing to shovel big chunks of scrambled eggs into her mouth.

“Aww, isn’t that cute. Hey, you two planned the wedding yet?” Amanda couldn’t hold back her laughter about her own joke.

Lotte and Diana gave her stern looks while Constanze rolled her eyes and Akko hid under her blanket, blushing.

A wedding? With Diana? The thought made Akko really happy, but she could never admit that.

“But seriously Akko, don’t do something that stupid again. Even I was worried. And you know me, I never worry about anything.” That’s true, Amanda was usually totally careless.

Akko came out from under her blanket, with big puppy eyes and a pout on her face.

“I’m sorry, I promise I won’t make any of you worry again.”

Everyone gave her a wide smile. She was happy, she had so many friends, and they still were by her side after they had heard the truth about her from Avery.

Nobody had believed her after it was clear she hadn’t been in control of her body, but Amanda had asked anyways, and Akko saw no reason in hiding it anymore, so she told the truth. Diana hugging her so close that she couldn’t breathe anymore wasn’t the reaction she had expected.

Her hair smelled so good. No, this was not the time to think about Diana’s hair. Again.

After a moment Lotte had broken the silence, saying it didn’t matter, she was Akko, their friend, and that that was all that counts. Everyone nodded in agreement.

A knock on the door snapped her out of her thoughts.

“Hey, can we come in?” Hannah was waiting outside the door. Surely Barbara was right by her side, as usual.

After a bit of thinking Akko answered. “Sure, but there’s no chairs so you’ll have to stand.”

“Chairs? In the nursery? What are you on about, did you hit your hea - OH!” Barbara was confused until she could see everyone gathered around.

“Sup” Amanda greeted the two new arrivals.

“Hi everyone.” Hannah was visibly nervous. “Diana, we came to tell you headmistress Holbrooke wanted to talk to you. And we wanted to make sure Akko is alright. We don’t agree with anything Avery said out there.”

“Not-Avery” Barbara corrected her best friend, “Diana said she was possessed, remember? She was floating around and was really creepy. I hope she gets better soon.”

“I’m fine, I’ll just have to wear this cast for a whole week.” Akko groaned. “So much for my flight training for the upcoming race.”

“Ohhh, a cast.” Hannah’s eyes sparkled from excitement. “Can I put my autograph on?”

What? Autograph? Akko didn’t understand what the redhead was on about.

Apparently her face had reflected her thoughts.

“Have you never had a cast before?” Amanda asked. Akko shook her head. “When you get a cast all your friends draw something nice on it or put their name. We wanted to wait until you’re done with breakfast, but we could do it now as well.”

Akko’s eyes sparkled. A visible proof of having friends? Everyone was being so nice to her. How could she have been that dumb last night? She would never do anything like that again! She wanted to spend a lot more time with her friends.

“You all want to do that for me? Wow, that’s amazing.”

“Sure will, we’re all here to make you feel better. Right guys?” Everyone once again nodded in agreement with Amanda.

“Okay, then I want you to go first Diana.” Akko looked at her crush with wide eyes.

“Me?” Diana was sooo cute when she was surprised. “Very well, where would you like it?”

She stood up and grabbed one of the colored markers the nurse used to label and organize the medical supplies.

“Right here on the top.” Akko pointed towards where her right knee was sitting under the cast. “I want to immediately be able to see it.”

Diana blushed slightly while she wrote her name with light blue ink onto the spot Akko had pointed at, in the best handwriting she had. 

“Awww, you put a heart on the i. Thanks Diana.”

”Betcha wouldn’t do it for anyone else here.”

Diana gave Amanda a cold stare. Barbara looked confused while Hannah giggled. Everyone else was just shaking their head in disappointment at Amanda. Nobody noticed Akko’s face becoming as red as Hannah’s hair.

“Alright, I’m next.” Hannah grabbed an orange pen and looked at Akko, waiting to get a location assigned.

“How about, uhm, here?” Akko pointed at a place a few centimeters lower down her leg.

“While all of you take care of this, I’ll go and see what headmistress Holbrooke wants to talk to me about. Is that alright with you, Akko?”

“Sure thing, but come back when you’re done, okay?”

“Of course, but make sure to finish your breakfast before I’m back.”

“Don’t worry” Amanda assured her, “we’ll take good care of your wife.”

“She’s not my… You know what, forget it. There’s no reason in dealing with you.”

And with those words Diana left the room.

 

After everyone was done writing their names Hannah and Barbara left again to prepare for classes. Lotte, Constanze and Jasminka followed them, but Amanda wanted to use the opportunity to skip classes and kept sitting next to Akko, her arms on the backrest of the chair, head on her arms.

“Hey, Amanda?”

“Hmmm?”

“About those things you said before…”

“What exactly? I said a lot.”

“Nevermind, it’s not important.”

“Oh? Now I’m curious!” Amanda’s head shot up and she tipped her chair forwards. “What exactly did I say that’s spinning around in your little empty head?”

“Hey, my head is not empty” Akko puffed up her cheeks and pouted. “And I’m being serious here. Before I tell you, promise to not make fun of me!”

“Alright, alright.” Amanda let her chair back down onto all four legs and raised both her hands. “I promise I’ll be at my best behavior. Now, what’s going on?”

“You called me Diana’s wife and talked about us having a wedding.”

“Yeah, I went a bit overboard with my joke, sorry”

“N-no, I’m not angry at you.” Akko played with her thumbs, hiding her face.

“NO WAY!” Amanda’s jaw dropped and she leaned back, forgetting that the backrest was in front of her. With a loud bang she fell onto the floor. “You’re really into little miss perfect? I honestly didn’t expect that.” She rubbed the back of her head as she got back up.

“It’s weird, isn’t it? And I don’t stand a chance anyways. I’m not even fully a girl, and I’m a nobody. While she’s this important ancestor of the most famous magical family there is.”

“Nonsense, you’re a girl through and through. And the rest is minor details. Diana is obviously into you, why else would she be sitting so close to you and go to such measures to protect you out there on the yard. I was just teasing her about it, but I didn’t think you’d have those feelings as well.”

“Wait, WHAT? You think Diana really likes me?”

“She sure does. I mean she’s been always looking only at you for the last few weeks, ever since you got her back when she decided to leave the school. And I’ve got a pretty reliable source who confirmed it for me.”

Akko swallowed. Diana liked her, and had done so all the time. Not even the knowledge about who she really was had changed that. Could this even be true? Or was Amanda just messing with her once again?

“Alright, that settles it.” Amanda gave Akko a mischievous grin while rubbing her hands together. “I’ll hook you two up.”

“Nonononono, that’s impossible, you can’t possibly do that!”

“What exactly is it Amanda can’t do?” Diana entered the room.

Akko started sweating. This was bad. What if Amanda was wrong, and when she tried something Diana would get mad at both of them.

“It’s a secret, don’t stress your oh so important mind about it.” Amanda replied.

“Hey, let’s talk about something else. What is it Holbrooke wanted to talk to you about?”

Akko’s distraction worked, Diana turned towards her and sat down next to her on her bed again. She grabbed both of Akko’s hands and held them together tightly. This was too much, and too close. Akko was sure she’d overheat if Diana stayed this close, but she also wanted this moment to last forever.

“She was worried about you. Everyone is, the whole school. She asked me to take care of you. If you want to you can move to my room, since you and Sucy obviously don’t get along too well.”

“Oh, so you two are gonna spend your honeymoon now. That’s grea-mmmmgrblhmpf”

With a flick of her wand Diana had created a zipper on Amanda’s mouth and closed it.

“Shouldn’t you be in class by now?”

Amanda pulled the zipper back open and it disappeared with a small poof.

“Oh come on, I’m being here for a friend, and it’s not like I’d learn anything important today anyways, it’s just repeating of stuff we already know. Tests were a week ago, it’s just padding until the holidays.”

“Very well, but please keep your idiotic comments to yourself. Akko is simply a friend of mine, she even says so herself.”

Akko tried her best not to look sad over what Diana had just said. With a calm voice, as normal as she could manage she said “Yep, just friends, nothing unusual here.”

When Diana didn’t look in her direction Amanda gave Akko a small wink, as if she wanted to say ‘I know you lied, and I’ll help you’. Akko smiled back at her thankfully.

“So, you said I could move to your room? How would that even work? I don’t want to separate Hannah and Barbara, they’ve been a lot nicer to me recently.”

“My bed is big enough for two people to sleep in.” Diana replied while brushing a streak out of Akko’s face and behind her ear.

“Smooth” Amanda said and whistled. Diana gave her another evil glare.

“Alright, I’ll be on my way now. I’ll see if I can find some crutches or if Cons can build some, should I not find any. Can’t have you locked in here until that cast comes off again. You two keep flirting while I’m away.” She ducked under a pillow Diana threw at her, laughed and left the room, the chairs started to walk and followed her like baby ducks followed their mother.

 

Akko and Diana sat there and stared at each other, both girls were unable to say a single word after Amanda’s teasing now that they were alone again.

After what felt like an eternity but was probably just a minute or two Akko cleared her throat.

“I- uhh I think it would be nice if we lived together. A lot nicer than with Sucy for sure. But I’m not sure if it’s okay for me to sleep in your bed.”

Akko looked away and pulled her sheet in front of her face. Hopefully Diana didn’t notice her blushing, or at least didn’t read too much into it.

“It’s alright, you don’t have to if you don’t want. We’ll find a way, maybe we can put another bunk bed in our room instead.”

“But then you have to climb, and a Cavendish shouldn’t have to climb up in her bed. But I can’t since I fall out of bed a lot, no matter how good the railings are.”

Diana giggled. “Very well, then you’ll have to get used to sleeping by my side. You don’t need to worry if it’s okay or not, I’m the one who suggested it after all.”

“Oh, okay then. If you’re okay with it then I guess I am as well.” Akko gave Diana a smile that was supposed to show confidence, but it was too shaky.

Diana held Akko’s hand with an assuring grip. “I’ll go and ask Lotte for help with picking up all your stuff once classes are over. You shouldn’t stress yourself too much.”

“Okay, let’s be roommates then.”

“Yes, I’m certainly looking forward to spending more time with you.”

Then they just sat there and held hands while smiling at each other.


	4. Solutions to Problems

“What happened to Avery? The others told me she is possessed by something. And you attacked her because of me.” Akko was curious to learn what exactly was going on, now that she knew Avery didn’t really hate her. She felt sorry for the witch forced to make others’ lives hell.

“The teachers are keeping an eye on her to find out what’s wrong.” Diana said while sorting her books so she could free a shelf for Akko. “She’s in the decontamination room now.”

Akko knew that room all too well. She couldn’t even count anymore how often she had spent afternoons in that white box, waiting for someone to figure out where exactly she had messed up a potion or spell and how to fix it again.

“I can’t make sense of it though,” Diana started mumbling to herself, “usually the subject has a green glow in their eyes if it’s a spell and a purple one if it’s a potion. I’ve never seen a red possession before. And why would it try to create hate?”

“I-I think I know the reason for it…” Akko said shyly. “Doesn’t it sound familiar to you? A red glow, unnatural strength, and it gets stronger with hate.”

“Now that you mention it, I think it does sound familiar. But that shouldn’t be possible. We destroyed all of that magic.”

“What if we didn’t? What if one cube managed to get away, to hide inside of Avery? And now it wants to become powerful and do what it was originally made for?”

“I suppose it is possible. We should maybe get an expert on this to take a look at her. But there’s only one expert on this kind of magic.” Diana’s face became sour.

“We should go and talk to Chariot about it. She surely knows how we can contact Croix. After all that happened she’d be more than willing to help.”

“It’s not her will to help that I’m concerned about. Moreso her measures of doing so.”

“Huh? Whatcha mean by that?”

“Excuse me, what I said was I don’t like the way she does what she does. Her ways of using magic to manipulate people go against everything I believe in.”

“But she changed. She isn’t like that anymore. And she’s the only person we can go to.”

“You’re right. I should give her a second chance, it’s what Beatrix would have done.

Alright,” Diana clapped her hands. “This is your shelf now, you can put on it whatever you want. Books, decorations, you name it.”

“Thanks Diana, I promise I’ll make good use of it!”

Akko gave Diana her widest smile. And Diana gave her a soft smile in return. Maybe this could work out after all, maybe she could stay by Diana’s side forever. The thought made her all giddy. If she hadn’t had the cast around her leg she would have been jumping through the room. But that would have been embarrassing, so she was happy to have it.

“When did Lotte want to come and drop off my stuff again? I miss my Alcor plush.”

“She said she’d be here in about two and a half hours. We could go and visit miss du Nord now if you want, even with me supporting you while walking.”

“Oh, right. Amanda hasn’t found any crutches for me yet.”

The nurse had sent Akko on her way after two hours, the cast had fully hardened and she was allowed to leave again, but she should take it slow for a week.

The way to her new room had been pretty embarrassing, with Diana wrapping an arm around her and holding her up so she could walk, or rather hop, towards their destination, their faces close enough that they were almost touching their cheeks.

“Can’t you use your broom and hover me there?”

“It’s not allowed to use brooms indoors, taking you to the nursery was an exception because you were hurt.”

“Ugh, always these stupid rules. Okay, let’s get going.”

Diana put her arm around Akko again and the heat immediately shot back into her head, giving her a bright red face. If this went on Diana would find out about her feelings soon, and this thought scared Akko.

With a quick pull Diana lifted Akko up from the bed and onto her still intact leg.

The two of them left the room and went on to see their idol.

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
  


“Oh, hello girls.” Chariot immediately opened the door after they knocked. “What brings you two here?”

“Hi. We were thinking about what happened to Avery and we think…”

Diana sighed. Akko was once again way too quick with her words. “Calm yourself. May we come in first?”

“Absolutely, it’s always nice to have visitors.”

Once the two were seated Chariot once again addressed them. “You mentioned something about Avery?”

“Yes, we know…” Akko blurted.

“We  _ might _ possibly have an explanation about what happened to her.”

“Yes, that’s what I’m saying. Why’d you interrupt me?”

“Akko, what we have is a mere theory. You stated it as if it were a fact.”

“Well, what else could it be.”

“Girls, girls.” Chariot tried to calm the two. “Even if it’s just a theory, I’m sure it’s worth hearing about.”

“Very well, as I was about to explain, Akko thinks there might be MagiTek involved.”

“You remember Croix’ cubes? I bet it’s one of those that somehow managed to get away when Diana and I fought the missile. With how clever she is she surely had had some backup plan like that.”

Chariot adjusted her glasses, visibly confused. “What would one of her cubes have to do with this situation?”

“We think it might have entered Avery’s body, took control and is now collecting hatred to get stronger.”

“We have to immediately get in contact with her. She’s probably the only one to fix this. We need to get her here to take a look at Avery as soon as possible!”

“I see, that would indeed explain things.” Chariot let out a deep sigh. “But I have to disappoint you two, I haven’t had any contact to Croix since she left. She’s being monitored by the high commission and I don’t have any means of contacting them. But I’ll talk to headmistress Holbrooke, she should be able to at least explain the situation. I don’t think they’ll let Croix come here but they will maybe let us send Avery to her.”

“How is her condition? Both of us are very worried.”

“Yeah, how is she holding up?”

“She has woken up by now, at first she had been screaming at us and tried to get out by scratching the wall. But after a while she stopped, currently she’s only sitting in the middle of the room, crying. Whatever took control over her is now weak enough to not use its power at the moment.”

“The cube used all the collected hate up, duh.”

“Akko, don’t interrupt miss du Nord.”

“It’s fine, I’m glad to see her this enthusiastic again.” Chariot made a small giggle.

“I am as well, it is refreshing to hear her excited voice. Even though she can be a bit of a hassle at times.”

“Hey, stop talking about me like that! I’m still in the room.” Akko puffed up her cheeks and pouted. Diana felt her ears tingling from heat when she noticed the little tremble in her lower lip. She wondered how soft it would feel on her own.

She cleared her throat. “Thanks for hearing us out. We’ll be on our way again. We’ll see you on Monday in class.”

“Actually you two are free to wait until after the holidays to come back to classes. After what happened I’d understand if you needed a bit more time before you can face everyone again.” Chariot held Akko’s hands and looked into her eyes. Diana felt a bit jealous. “I offered to give you private lessons instead, and I was hoping you’d help me, Diana. You two are so close after all. I wanted to come and tell you about it this afternoon.”

Diana was irritated. The whole day everyone had complimented her for being close to Akko. But she wasn’t close to her, or at least not as close as she wished she was.

“I suppose that would be possible.” 

“Wow, really? Thank you so much, Chariot. That’s so nice of you, you’re my favorite teacher by far.” Akko had jumped up and wrapped her arms around her teacher in a way that Diana didn’t like at all. She wanted to be the only one Akko hugged this closely.

“Come now, Akko. Lotte should soon bring your belongings to our room, we don’t want to make her wait.” She grabbed Akko and walked her out, thanking Chariot one last time and excusing for Akko being, well, Akko.

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
  


It was late afternoon. Akko had unpacked her bags and placed all her stuff. Alcor was sitting on the bed, waiting to be cuddled by her again. All her Chariot merchandise was nicely arranged on her shelf, together with the books she needed for class. Her clothes were still in a suitcase in the corner, the new closet was supposed to arrive next week. There was nothing left to do here. Akko grabbed the crutches Constanze had made for her and limped over to the couch. With a plop she let herself fall onto it.

“Hey Akko, you feeling alright?” Barbara asked.

“Anything we can do for you to make you get settled easier?” Hannah smiled at her.

“No, no. I’m fine. I’m just bored. Usually I’d be out doing flight practice again, but with this…”

Akko pointed at her cast. She had collected a few more signatures, even Chariot had given her an autograph when she came over to inform her that she had told Holbrooke about Akko’s idea.

“Hey, where’s Diana by the way? I didn’t notice her leave because I was so busy arranging my stuff to look as nice as all of hers.”

“She left about an hour ago,” Barbara replied, “should be back here any minute. I think she wanted to contact her family about something but she didn’t say what it was.”

“I’ll make tea for us now, would you like some as well Akko?” Hannah didn’t even wait for an answer and started preparing the kettle anyways.

“Sure, thanks.” Akko was really happy she got along this well with the two now. “I just wish there was something I could do. Well, something I wouldn’t get in trouble for doing it with this stupid thing on my leg.” She leaned back and stared at the ceiling while making a loud groan.

“Hey, there’s still a few hours left to this day. Maybe we could go for a walk once Diana comes back.” Akko liked Barbara’s suggestion. It’d be nice to go and enjoy the beautiful scenery around the school. Maybe she and Diana could even find a moment without the other two. Sit at the lake and stare at the waves while the whole school was dyed red from the sunset. Holding hands, slowly leaning over for a kiss…

“Oh, you prepared tea? Thank you very much.” Diana’s return abruptly ended Akko’s daydream. She shook her head to get rid of any last thoughts so Diana couldn’t find out about them.

“We were thinking about going for a walk.” Barbara informed Diana of her plan. “Akko is bored and I thought it’d be nice if we could all spend some time together and catch some fresh air.”

“That sounds lovely.” Diana sat down right next to Akko. “But we shouldn’t be out too long. I wanted to take care of some last preparations for next weekend.”

“That’s when the holidays start, are you going to go home again?” Hannah’s question made Akko sit up as if she had been struck by lightning.

“Yes, as rare as it might be, but the stars are going to align again so I can finally become the head of the family.” Three simultaneous gasps interrupted Diana. “However, I will come back here afterwards. This is a mere formality, Anna assured me she will take care of everything for me until my graduation.

Akko, would you like to accompany me again?”

Spending her holidays with Diana at her mansion? Being by her side when she finally completed the ceremony that she couldn’t finish last year? This was a dream come true.

“Oh and once the ceremony is complete I’ll hold a ball, it’s tradition to introduce the new head of the family to society properly. You two are of course invited as well.”

A ball? Akko would get another chance to see Diana in a beautiful dress like back at the Hanbridge villa? How could all of Akko’s wishes suddenly come true out of the blue?

Her brain short circuited, this was too much for her.

She barely even noticed her surroundings while the four went for their walk.

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
  


“Are you sure you don’t need my help, Akko?” Diana’s voice came from behind the bookshelf. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of in needing help while being injured.”

“This isn’t about my cast. It’s embarrassing to change clothes in front of you. Also I’m almost done her - aaaaaahhh.” With a loud thud Akko fell onto the floor.

“Are you alright?” Diana peeked around the corner of the bookshelf. 

Akko’s face went as red as a firetruck. She had fallen over while trying to get her shorts over her cast. Now it was stuck half way over, her panties showing a shape that should have never been.

And Diana could see her! She immediately hid the unsightly area with her hands.

Diana slowly walked over, her face bright red as well.

“Here, let me help you.” Diana quickly pulled up Akko’s shorts, helped her sit up on the bed and then took a few steps back.

“thanks” Akko mumbled, looking anywhere but in Diana’s direction.

This was bad. Diana had seen. Even if Amanda was right and Diana had had feelings for her, she surely wouldn’t anymore now.

“You know, Akko, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’m your friend, and I like you just the way you are.”

Wow, this was unexpected. Akko immediately looked at Diana who was biting her thumb and staring at the ceiling, her face still red.

“I- I mean, you’re a nice girl, and I’m glad I can be your friend and…”

“Diana? Is something wrong?” Diana’s face got even redder as she said these words. Did that mean Diana actually  _ liked _ her? Even though her body was this way?  If this was true, maybe she and Diana could…

NO. She absolutely couldn’t have these thoughts and let it get any weirder between her and Diana.

“Everything is completely fine, but we should get sleeping now. Hannah and Barbara went to bed an hour ago.” Diana laid down in bed, waited until Akko got comfortable besides her and then with a flick of her wand turned off the lights.

Akko could feel Diana’s breath on her neck. This was so weird.

She twitched a little as she felt Diana putting an arm around her, pulling her closer.

“I’m so glad you’re here.” Diana whispered. “I don’t know what I would be doing without you.”

Akko was speechless. Not even in her most daring dreams she could have expected this to happen.

“I love you Akko, and I want to protect you for the rest of my life. I’m sorry I’m unable to admit my feelings during daylight just yet, but I’ll show you as much as I can here, okay?”

Diana kissed her neck. She could feel how soft and wet those beautiful lips were. A confession, now? What should she do? Admit her feelings as well? Pretend to sleep?

Or maybe she already was asleep and this was just another dream.

No, she could smell the wonderful scent of Diana’s hair, and smelling was something that wasn’t possible in dreams.

“D-Diana…”

“It’s fine Akko, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want. Just tell me if I go too far.”

“You didn’t, not at all. The truth is, I like you too.”

“I’m glad to hear that my dear.” Diana started to play with her hair. She could feel those delicate fingers softly brushing against her head.

“But, aren’t you grossed out now? You saw, right?”

“I admit, I did see. But this isn't of any concern to me. You're still you Akko, and there's noone else I could ever love more than you. And if anyone will ever attack you for being who you are, physically or mentally, come to me and I'll protect you.”

Upon hearing Diana's confession Akko’s brain completely stopped working. This was too much for her to take in.

After a few minutes of being hugged and petted Akko’s brain finally had swallowed this huge fact. The girl she was in love with was also in love with her, and apparently not only accepted but also promised to protect her.

She grabbed Diana’s arm and and made her make the hug tighter. Nobody would ever get between them.

“I’ll stay by your side, forever.”

“And I’ll stay by yours, dearest Akko.”

Slowly they drifted off into sleep.


	5. Moving On

The sunlight tickled Akko’s nose and woke her up. At first she was disoriented because of the unfamiliar environment. Then she noticed Diana’s arm around her and remembered everything. She cuddled back into the arms of her girlfriend.

Wait, was it okay for her to call Diana that, even if only in her thoughts?

“Hey, Diana?”

“Hmm? Oh, good morning Akko. I didn’t notice you were awake yet.”

Only now Akko noticed Diana had been brushing her hair since she woke up, or no, even longer while she had still been asleep. She blushed and mumbled “I-it’s nothing.”

“If you want to tell me something, then say so. I don’t want you to feel as if you have to keep secrets from me.” And with those words Diana planted another kiss on Akko’s neck.

This was too much for her. She needed to know what’s going on, now.

“Okay. Uhm, how do I say this best? What… What am I for you?”

“You’re the precious girl that I failed to protect before.” Diana replied with her softest voice. “And I promise I’ll never make that mistake again. I’m always by your side from now on.”

“Awwww, you two are so cute together. I guess you’re the same as me, huh Diana?”

Hannah stood in front of their bed, with wide open sparkling eyes and forming a heart with her hands.

Diana’s face went bright red and she was left dumbfounded and speechless while Akko buried her face in the sheets.

“What do you mean, the same as you?” Akko mumbled through the sheets.

“Heheheh, well, you see, I actually have a crush on Barbs and never noticed, Diana helped me realize two days ago. Her words were so calm and comforting, I should have expected it’s because she’s actually used to being in such a position but that thought didn’t cross my mind until now.”

“Wait, you and Barbara?” Akko crawled up from under the blanket. “I thought you two were siblings?”

“No, we’re not. What made you think that? We’re just childhood friends, even though I wished there was more to it.” Hannah sat down on Diana’s desk with a deep sigh.

“Damn, now I owe Amanda 5£. We had a bet if you’re siblings or if you’re in love.”

Hannah blinked to process this new information, but then she giggled.

Diana cleared her throat. “I suppose it’s alright for you to know about this particular situation with me and Akko, especially since I know about your circumstances as well, but please keep it to yourself, will you?”

“Of course Diana, my lips are sealed. Everything for my friends.”

“Also with you speaking so openly I guess Barbara is out again?”

“Yeah, she got up super early this morning to go and put in our registration for the race. She was super excited about it again, just like last time.”

“Too bad I can’t participate this time. I really wanted to win, especially since I can fly now. Well, I can hover. But that’s a lot more than last time, so my chances would have been higher. Except I wouldn’t have a team this time around, so it doesn’t matter anyways.”

“Maybe you can participate in the next one. I’d gladly change my spot with yours, I don’t like race flying that much. I’d rather try myself at flight gymnastics, more elegant and less speedy. Plus I bet you two would like to be in the same team.”

“Girls, as much as I’d love to listen to your banter anymore, I’d like to get up and prepare myself for the day.”

“Wait, you’re busy again today? Diana, I thought we agreed you wouldn’t overwork yourself so much anymore.”

“It’s not work, I just merely want to get done with my morning routine and wanted to write a letter to Anna to prepare everything for our arrival at the manor. I wouldn’t want to force you to wait in the entrance hall while your rooms are being prepared. I also need to make a guest list for the additional arrivals during the ball.”

“Oh, so only a bit of light work. That’s good. If you’re done you should come out to the field so we can train for the race, Barbs said she’d be really angry if you didn’t come. Oh, and you should come as well Akko, maybe seeing our training will help with your flight abilities as well, even if you’re currently bound to the ground again.”

“Sure, I’ll cheer you on. Not like there’d be any other team I’d be rooting for. Amanda got disqualified for what she did during the last race.” Cheering for Diana. This was a great idea. She immediately knew what she’d be doing the next days. “Oh, and I guess I have to talk to Lotte about something. I’ll go do that now and see you later at the training.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

After they had all dressed up and Diana had started writing her letters Akko grabbed her crutches and hopped onwards to her old room to meet her former roommate.

But when she arrived it was Sucy who opened the door and not Lotte.

“Oh. Uhhh, hi Akko.”

“Hi, Sucy.”

The awkward silence seemed to last forever, the air felt thick enough to be cut into slices. And not because there was any potion currently bubbling in the background.

“I’m sorry. For everything. You always were so cheery, I never expected you to think twice about anything. I just thought it was okay since… But it wasn’t, huh? I hope you can forgive me.”

Akko blinked a few times. Sucy was sorry? Sucy who loved to ruin everyone’s day was actually apologizing to her? This was something new.

“Wow, this is unexpected.” Akko blurted without thinking. “I guess it’s fine now, just don’t test any potions on me anymore. You can summon some artificial animals for that, can’t you?”

“Yeah, sorry. Actually I won’t be making any potions in the next time. Or at least not any fun ones. I’m not allowed to brew anymore unless I’m under teacher supervision. Lukic isn't happy about the hole I burned into her favourite cauldron and the classroom floor yesterday.”

“Wow, that has to be tough for you. Uhm, can I come in? Standing with these here” Akko nodded to her crutches ”is quite uncomfortable.”

“Oh, yeah, sure, come on in.”

Akko went into the room that now that her things were gone seemed a lot more empty and larger. She sat down on her former bed. “Hey, where’s Lotte? I wanted to ask her to help me with something.”

“Dunno, she looked at something in her crystal ball, blushed and ran out of the room with the thing under her arm.” Sucy shrugged and rolled her eyes. “I’m sure she’ll be back shortly.”

“Oh, okay. Then I’ll wait here for her.”

“Hey, want some mushroom chips? Bought a few new bags yesterday in town, the teachers were too shaken about you to notice some students missing. Should have stayed longer, but I couldn't miss my favorite class. Now it's gotten me in trouble but oh well.”

Sucy shrugged and then offered Akko a bag of her chips which the other girl gladly took a hand full of.

“Honestly everyone was shaken, that’s why I went to grab some myself, food to calm the nerves.” Sucy grinned shyly, not actually looking into Akko’s eyes. “I was really worried, you know? I read your letter to Lotte, that was some heavy stuff. You didn’t actually jump tho, right? I mean, you’re sitting here.”

“Actually I did. In exactly the moment Diana came to stop me. She scared me and I slipped, that’s where I got this trophy from.” Akko lifted her cast and immediately dropped it to the floor again with gritted teeth as pain shot through her leg. “Diana raced after me with her broom and caught me mid-air.”

“Wow. So you actually had a near-death experience there. How was it?” Sucy was excited about the thought, being back to her crazy self, at least a bit.

“W-well, you see, I was falling down, and uhhh…” Akko blushed and scratched the back of her head as she remembered all the images of Diana she saw that night.

“You absolutely don’t have to tell me if it makes you uncomfortable. I already tortured you enough in the past, I don’t want to be like that again, so I probably shouldn’t let you live through what was surely the worst night in your life yet again.”

“No, no, it’s okay.” Akko shook her head wildly to indicate she wasn’t scared or angry. “It’s just that I saw some stuff. Memories. Flashing in front of my eyes.”

“Memories, huh? So the rumors about seeing your whole life again is true. Interesting.”

“Uhhh, no, not quite. It wasn’t my whole life, it was just nice memories, none of the bad ones that filled my mind the whole day before. Memories of D-” Akko’s face was as red as a tomato. She cleared her throat. “Memories that are very private. Yes, that’s it.”

“Huh, only positive memories. That’s nice I suppose. Your body didn’t want you to suffer anymore. And then you were saved. I’m pretty glad you’re still around. I suppose you’ll stay with Diana and you won’t come back here, huh? You have a crush on her after all.”

“WHAT? NO, I DON’T. WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT?!?”

“Honestly? Your reaction right now. And the fact that you mumbled her name in your sleep a lot last week.”

“That was because I constantly had this nightmare. Of her being killed by that missile.”

“Oh. Why didn’t you say so? You still have those? Because I have a potion against nightmares somewhere around here. I’m not a monster, you know. Not anymore at least, thanks to you. I never used any potions on you that could actually harm you.”

“You really had such a potion and would give it to me?”

“Of course, believe it or not but I know how it feels to be stuck in nightmares, mostly ones of my mom. I’m glad I moved out there for good.”

 

The two girls sat there for at least another hour, talked and laughed and learned more and more about each other they didn’t know before.

When Lotte arrived Akko told her about the plan she had made and Lotte happily agreed to help out her best friend.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It had taken Diana longer than she had expected to write the letter to Anna. She had constantly crossed out words, rewritten passages and ripped the half-done letters apart. It had never before been so hard to write a letter to her maid who had been by her side as long as she could remember. And it wasn’t even a hard request, prepare two rooms with each one having one bed large enough for two people.

But now the letter was done and she could start with the guest list.

  * Akko
  * Hannah and Barbara
  * Andrew and Frank, each +1 of course



She considered inviting a few more students from Luna Nova, but noticed there wasn’t anyone she was close enough to for it not to feel awkward and forced.

She just went and copied over the names from the default list she had always ended up using anyways. Rich old nobles she had to invite even if she didn’t want to. That ball was going to be boring once again. But Akko would be there, right by her side. For the entire evening. So it wouldn’t be that bad. Maybe even a bit fun.

But who would Andrew bring? He still hadn’t introduced her to his new girlfriend even though they were together for quite a while now. Or was it even a girl? Andrew only ever talked neutrally about his ‘partner’. She was sure he had indicated something about it being someone experienced in magic, someone who possibly went to school here. But then again the descriptions always sounded more like a boy. Was Andrew gay? Diana wouldn’t have a problem with that of course, Andrew was her friend and whoever made him happy was fine. She was more annoyed of the fact Andrew wouldn’t tell her. Whenever she asked he only replied ‘And what about your girl? Have you finally confessed?’

It made her angry.

But no time for dwelling about it now. The list was done and Akko waited to see her train for the race. She didn’t want to leave her wait any second longer than necessary, so she got up and made her way to the field.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The weekend went by in what felt like a blur.

Diana trained daily with Hannah and Barbara. Hannah still couldn’t confess, even with Akko cheering her on. All of Akko’s friends, even Sucy, visited her at least twice a day. And Akko daily disappeared with Lotte, saying she’d be working on a surprise. Diana was a bit suspicious, but she was glad to see the girl she loved so much being happy again and spending time with her friends. Everything seemed to be back to normal again and this made her happier than anything else could.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Good morning girls. I’m glad to see you’re not late even if this is only an optional private lesson.” Chariot greeted the two as they went into the classroom that had been reserved for them.

“Morning. What are you going to teach us today? Any cool new spells?” Akko let herself fall onto the cushion of a chair in the first row.

With a deep sigh Diana sat down next to her. “Akko, you shouldn’t learn any new spells until you perfected the ones you already know.”

“Actually, I wanted to only talk with you two for now. We’ll get to magic later. An important point about doing magic is how you intend to use it, the purpose of altering the reality around you has to be clear to make the spells more precise.”

“Wait, so you’re saying me wanting to make everyone happy is not enough for me to channel my magic.” Akko’s jaw dropped a bit.

“I’m afraid not, that’s too vague of a goal. You need to know why you want to use a specific spell at a given time. That’s why I tried to teach you restoration magic at first. Wanting to fix something broken is a specific purpose, wanting to make people happy sadly is not.”

“It’s like that when I use healing magic as well. I was able to easen the pain in your leg because I wanted you to feel better, I wanted to care for you.” Diana’s cheeks became a bit pink. Akko couldn’t stop but think how cute she looked.

“So, what are your specific goals for the future? What do you want to do once you graduate?” Chariot smiled softly at her two favorite students. “We asked the rest of your fellow students the same question on friday. It’s important to always work towards a goal so you need to find out what you want to do.”

“Uhhhh, I don’t know. I always just wanted to do what you did, stand on a stage and make everyone happy. I guess that’s not an option tho, at least not one I can keep up for my whole life.” Akko fell into thoughts, chewing on her thumbnail.

“Honestly, until recently I didn’t have a goal myself either. It was actually when you told us about these private lessons that I realized. I want to become a teacher here myself. This place is very dear to me, it always felt more like home than my family’s mansion ever had. And I enjoy showing others the miracles magic can do.”

Chariot and Akko both were speechless for a moment.

“That is indeed a very good goal to work towards.” Chariot adjusted her glasses, a slight blush on her face now. “So you want to take after me as well, but in a different way.”

“I suppose one could see it that way.” Diana smiled and went to Akko. “It’s important to know what your talents are, it makes it easier to think about what you want to do.”

“But what about restoring your family’s name and all that?”

“I don’t see why I couldn’t do both. It was you who showed me that there’s more to me than my last name after all.”

Diana was so close again. Akko didn’t want her idol to find out about their secret relationship, so she shifted a bit away and stared out of the window, pretending to think.

“Wow, this is really hard. I have never thought much about the future. All I know is I want to live a happy life, and I want all my friends to do the same.”

“Maybe this will help.” Diana took Akko’s hand in hers. “Close your eyes. And now think about what you want most in your future. What do you see?”

“Huh? Nothing, duh. My eyes are closed after all.... WHOA.”

“I’m using a visualisation spell, if you concentrate on your desires and wishes you’ll be able to see them. So, what _do_ you see?”

“Us two, side by side.” Akko’s face went red. “We’re…”

Her eyes shot wide open.

“What did you see Akko? You look a little pale.” Diana was still holding onto her hand.

Akko quickly pulled it back and stared in another direction. “It’s nothing, none of your concern at all.” 'Not like I could blurt out I just saw us two in wedding dresses. Not in front of my childhood idol, the coolest witch I've ever known.'

“I suppose Akko will need some more time to think about this. Akko, would you like us to continue with some spells you’re already familiar with?”

She nodded and reached for her wand. “Which one did you have in mind?”

“How about you try and practice alteration magic more, you always liked transformations the most after all.” With these words Chariot revealed a cage with a hamster inside.

“Okay, sure.” Akko still was a bit nervous after her vision. “ _M-Metamorphie Faciesse_ ”

The tip of her wand started glowing green, the glow got larger and exploded in a cloud of smoke. The hamster was still sitting in it’s cage, nibbling on a piece of carrot.

“Aww, nothing happened. I thought I was better at this spell by now, I used it so often.”

“I wouldn’t say nothing has happened.” Diana said, reaching for her head. Akko winced a bit when she felt Diana touching her ears. She immediately reached on top of her head to confirm it. Yes, she had grown large bunny ears. “Ugh, again?” Her arms dropped in defeat.

“Here, let me fix you and then we can try again.” Chariot reached for her wand but Diana stood up and grabbed her wrist. “NO, WAIT”

Akko and Chariot both looked puzzled at Diana who immediately let go of her professors hand and put both hers in front of her face to hide her sudden blushing. “I-I like this look, so it’d be nice if she could keep it a little longer. You know what, nevermind, forget I said anything.”

“You like it? I guess I’ll keep this then, it’s not like these ears would be uncomfortable or annoying or anything.”

“Akko…” Diana turned around and looked into her face. The pink hue on her cheeks made her look amazingly cute. “I… I don’t really know what to say. I love you.”

“Diana!” Akko sat there in shock. Diana’s face went full red and had a shocked expression when Chariot behind her giggled. She had completely forgotten that there was someone else in the room with them.

“Now girls, I’m glad you two are so close, but we should maybe continue practicing.”

Chariot knew this would be a long and awkward class for the three of them today, but then again it always was complicated with those two in the same room…


	6. Broom Race

“Aaaaaahhhhh, Amaaaaaaandaaaaaa. Ineedtotalktoyourightnow!”

Akko had waited in front of the green team room after lunch so she could talk about her newest problem as soon as her friend arrived.

“Hey there. New look?” Amanda giggled while she inspected the fluffy ears coming out of the top of the smaller girl’s head. Then she addressed her roommates. “Hey girls, this might take a while. Why don’t you go get comfortable and I find a more private place to talk to our little bunny.”

Constanze and Jasminka nodded and Amanda went on her way, Akko limping behind.

 

When they found an empty classroom to talk in Amanda opened the conversation.

“So, what’s up? Don’t tell me you made the ears on purpose to tell Diana a joke about rabbits multiplying.”

“Not funny Amanda, this is serious. I had my private lessons with Chariot and Diana today. And I was really nervous because, well, I was alone with the two most important people in my life. So I messed up my spell again and instead of turning a hamster into a bunny I gave myself these ears. Then Chariot offered to remove them and Diana stopped her and then…”

Akko blinked a few seconds.

“What then? Come on, what shocked you so much, I mean other than Diana wanting you to keep those ears?”

“She, uh well you see, uhm…”

“Akko?”

“Well, you were obviously right…”

“Spill it!”

“ShetoldmeshelovesmeinfrontofChariot. There, I said it. Satisfied?”

“Wow, she did that? That’s not a Diana thing to do.”

“Well, after she remembered Chariot was in the room she ran away, even left her bag behind. What should I do now?”

“She finally confessed to you, so that’s a starting point. Now we need to get her to accept her feelings in public without running away. No fun if you can’t follow her.”

“Well, she did say she likes me and that she’ll always stay by my side during our first night together. Amongst a few other things.” Akko’s face went bright red remembering what happened that night.

“I would like to ask but I suppose that’s too private, miss tomato. All I wanna know is how deep her feelings are so I can best help you. But since she outright said she loves you I think I know enough. Alright, let’s make a plan. Where is she now?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t seen her since she ran away. But usually should be out on the field with Hannah and Barbara, training for the race.”

“The race, huh? Lotte told me you had planned something for her already, right. Maybe we can use it for our purposes…” with a malicious grin Amanda leaned in to explain her plan to Akko.

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
  


During dinner professor Finnelan stepped up to Akko when she waited in line.

“Miss Kagari!” Akko flinched at the harsh tone in her voice, especially since it was amplified through her new ears. “What is this appearance supposed to be? I know you’ve had a rough week, but I won’t tolerate your shenanigans. This school has rules and you have to follow them like every other student.”

“With all due respect Professor Finnelan, I don’t see any problem here.” Diana’s cheeks were pink but she had the same calm and dignified voice she always used. “There is no such rule to not allow a witch to change her appearance in any way she wants.”

“But she looks ridiculous.” Akko shrank with every word her teacher said. “Our school is a noble institution and won’t tolerate any student trying to make fun of it.”

“Oh, that’s the problem here?” With a grin that could have very well been on Amanda’s face Diana took out her wand and a few seconds later the cloud she had created around her head disappeared again to reveal a pair of blonde cat ears protruding from her hair. “Would you say I’m making fun of the school’s dignity by trying to match my appearance to that of a friend?”

“Diana! This is outrageous. Revert this immediately.” Diana could swear there was smoke coming out of her teacher’s ears.

“I-it’s okay Diana, just change us back and let’s forget this happened, okay?”

“No, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. I don’t want you to change back. Call me selfish, but I want them to stay, since I know you’re happy with your new ears.”

“She’s right Akko,” Hannah joined the conversation, “you don’t have to change if you don’t want to. It looks cute.” And with a swish of her wand she gave herself some animal ears as well. “Since Diana did it, I don’t see why I shouldn’t. I immediately thought about the ears of a red panda when I first saw you with these, but I was too shy to go through with it.”

“You know what? If everyone does it I’ll join.” Barbara flicked her wand and gave herself the same ears Hannah had, just in black.

Suddenly Diana noticed everyone’s eyes were locked onto the commotion they were causing. This was embarrassing. If only professor Finnelan would finally leave Akko alone and go away. She could have never expected what happened next. Almost everyone in the cafeteria took out their wands and repeated what she and her roommates just had done.

“This, uhh, what…” Finnelan was speechless.

A few cheers from the crowd indicated everyone was on Akko’s side here, she had just started the latest fashion trend.

Finnelan angrily went on her way, but not without loudly declaring “This is outrageous, just you wait until headmistress Holbrooke hears of this!”

Diana let out a deep sigh. “Shall we go eat now?”

Akko only nodded, blushing once again. Everybody was on her side and she was obviously flustered about it.

“You’ve got this, Akko.” Hannah put her hand on the embarrassed girl’s shoulder.

“Yeah, we’re on your side and we’ll make sure nothing bad happens to you.” Barbara chimed in. “I guess we kinda have to after how we behaved when you first arrived.”

“I don’t really mind anymore, you’re so nice now and that was in the past, so it doesn’t really matter…” Akko shyly mumbled.

The four sat down on a table in a corner, a bit away from the rest of the students and silently ate their meal.

  
  


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Tuesday went by uneventfully, Akko and Diana had a normal proper class with Chariot, this time about star drifting over time, with a big holographic map of the stars, something Chariot wanted to test for the next semester. It helped Akko learn a lot faster so she would keep using it in the future. Then Diana went on to her broom training again, and Akko went to take care of her plans with Lotte and Amanda until the latter went because she had ‘something important coming up’ and disappeared towards the leyline portal.

  
  


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Then it was finally Wednesday morning, the day of the race.

After breakfast Akko raced off to Lotte, to ‘add some final touches’, to what Diana couldn’t imagine. She finished her breakfast and went with her other roommates towards the preparation area. There were no classes that day and everyone was excited. The rostrums got set up quickly and were filled even quicker.

 

When the three were done with their preparations and went on to the starting line Diana couldn’t believe her eyes. There was Akko, excitedly hopping up and down as best as her cast allowed. But what left Diana speechless wasn’t her behavior but her outfit. She was wearing an even shorter skirt than usually, and an equally short top that left her belly uncovered, both in dark blue with light blue, white and gold accents. On the left side of her top, about where her heart had to be sitting, there even was a golden Luna Nova logo stitched in.

“Ohhhh, hey Diana, over here!” Akko shouted, as if Diana hadn’t noticed her already anyways. She slowly walked over to the overly excited girl.

“Uhm, what exactly are you wearing there Akko?”

“This? That’s my uniform. I’m your personal cheerleader, here to make you fly even better than you already do anyways.”

“M-my what?” Diana could only blink in confusion. “Isn’t that outfit a bit too, how do I say, open?”

“Diana, have you ever watched any sports?” Hannah tilted her head and looked confused at her team leader. “Cheerleaders always wear such outfits, it’s completely normal.”

“Yeah, and I made this just so I can wear it for you. But you don’t like it, huh? I guess I’ll just go and change into my normal clothes again.” Akko deflated, arms hanging down and all her cheeriness from a few seconds ago was gone. Diana couldn’t accept this sudden change. She took Akko aside to talk to her in private.

“No, wait Akko. I do like it, I was just surprised, that is all. Please stay and cheer for me. I was just concerned about, well, your condition.” She nodded down.

“What, my cast? I can cheer with it just fine.”

“No, I wasn’t talking about your cast. What I meant was, uhh how do I say this…”

“Oooohhh.” Akko’s eyes went wide open. “Don’t worry about that. Actually it’s not only sewing I needed Lotte’s help with. The skirt is enchanted with an illusion spell, when you look from below all you see is a black void. Pretty clever idea, huh?”

“Yes, Akko, that is indeed a very good solution.”

Another pink hue flushed over Diana’s cheeks, this was happening way too often lately. But her words had the reaction she had hoped for, Akko was excited again, ran back to where their group was standing and pulled some golden glittering fluffy spheres up from under her seat.

“Alright. Go, Diana, Go!” Akko rustled around with her weird fluffs and Diana chuckled, wondering what the excited girl was doing now.

 

Suddenly the leyline portal on the main gates opened and a long black limousine drove through. It stopped next to the group and out of the door came…

Amanda wearing a black tuxedo, hair gelled back, followed by Andrew and Frank, both equally fancy dressed.

“Andrew? What brings you here?” Diana was a little bit shocked to see him arrive here so unexpected.

“I was just bringing my date back home.” He stated as bored and calm as ever. “Miss Kagari, it’s always a pleasure to see you. I was already informed of your current condition.”

“Ehehe, hi Andrew. Like it? Ohhh, wanna sign it for me?” Akko sat down and immediately lifted her leg to show off her beloved collection of signatures on her cast.

“Of course I will, everything for a friend. I suppose you’ll join my efforts, Frank?”

“For such a lovely lady I’d do anything.” Frank looked around. “And where is Lotte if I may ask? I haven’t seen her in weeks and would like to talk to her before these flowers go bad.”

Only now they noticed the bunch of flowers he was carrying, six orange roses, the same orange as Lotte’s hair.

Now Diana at least knew who to expect as their two plus ones for her ball. She wasn’t sure if she should be happy or worried about Amanda.

The person in question started speaking. “Wow, nice outfit Akko. Didn’t know it would look this fancy. Hope your girlfriend likes it.”

“Thanks Amanda, I worked on this with Lotte for days, I’m glad it turned out how I wanted it.”

“Yes, it indeed does have a certain charme, I admit. But please, refrain from making such statements, you might start unwanted rumors.”

“Come on, Cavendish. The whole school knows you’re into Akko, you should just get rid of the stick up your ass and openly admit it.”

“Why am I not surprised to hear such vulgar language from you?” Diana pinched the bridge of her nose. She really didn’t want to deal with these accusations right before the race, even if they were actually true. “Also what are you wearing there?”

“Oh, this? Well, today is a guy day. You see, I’m genderfluid, swap between guy and girl on a given day, but I don’t know which it is until I wake up. Sadly this school isn’t as supportive as loverboy here so I usually gotta pretend on guy days, sucks a lot.”

“I… honestly didn’t expect that. I’m glad you get to be yourself.” Diana was baffled.

“Soooo, you’re a guy today?” Akko once again sounded excited. “How should we call you? Amanda clearly won’t work now.”

“How about just Am? It’s short n easy.”

“Alright, Am. Oh, and congrats to your relationship. How long have you two been going out?”

“Let’s see now.” Andrew put his index finger on his lower lip, thinking. “It was about two weeks after you two came for a visit to Appleton, we ran into each other over in Blytonbury and went to get some cake together. Things went pretty smooth and we started seeing each other more often after that.”

“Yeah, loverboy here just couldn’t handle the distance and constantly asked to see me. Can’t say no to such a cute face now, can you?”

In this moment the rest of their friends arrived. Lotte immediately blushed and hid behind Jasminka once she noticed Frank. He went up to her with the widest smile anyways and gave her the flowers. This seemed to easen Lottes shyness and she relaxed more and they talked a bit.

“Alright, we’ll start soon, you all should take your seats.” Diana said and went on her way to the starting line.

“Good luck you three!” Akko shouted after them.

“Thanks Akko.” Barbara shouted back.

“And have fun cheering.” Hannah waved as they went on.

  
  


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“Wow, they’re really fast. And flying in a cluster, this is so different from last time.” Akko was really enjoying the race.

“Yeah, they aren’t just racing but they also receive points on how in sync their relative positions are.” Amanda explained.

“What’s that mean?” Akko was confused.

“It means if one of the three was to fall back or to speed up to much and break the formation they’ll lose points and take a lower place even if they do come in first.” Akko could always count on Lotte explaining complicated stuff when Diana wasn’t around to do so.

“But they’re perfectly tied together, this race was over once it started.” Amanda yawned. “Wish you could have seen the last one, loverboy. Too bad I got disqualified this time.”

“I suppose you made the last race more exciting, didn’t you?” Andrew chuckled.

“Yeah, she manipulated the other racers, made Constanze use jet engines on her broom and used a legendary untameable broom for herself last time which she lost and then was used by Akko who could hold on a lot better. Well, not like we didn’t cheat either, with me using a potion to grow everyone’s brooms to the ground and another to make Akko’s first broom have a frog leg and hop the distance because she couldn’t fly yet. That’s why I’m not up there right now.” Sucy let out a sigh and shrugged. 

“I would be allowed but I didn’t want to race, I only did it last time for Akko.” Lotte admitted.

“That’s good because I rather have you by my side than up there.” Frank smiled gleefully at the finnish girl by his side who now hid her face behind the roses she had received and enchanted to last until she could put them in a vase in her room. Or only one of Sucy’s beakers Akko guessed, still remembering what they had and didn’t have in her old room.

“Thanks again for helping me make this, Lotte. It’s such a great outfit and Diana seemed to like it as well.”

“Don’t mention it Akko, I’ll always help you when I can. We all will.”

Her friends nodding and smiling at her made Akko a bit embarrassed but super happy.

“Thanks everyone, I’m so glad to have you around me.”

“Here they come.” Jasminka announced between two chips.

“And of course our team is first, like I said.” Amanda yawned.

In fact Diana, Hannah and Barbara crossed the finish line first and Barbara immediately jumped in the air, rising her fist as soon as they landed on the ground again.

The other racers finished soon after and the winners were announced a short while later.

“Alright, time for our plan. Hope it works.”

“You go, Akko. I don’t see what could go wrong.”

“That’s because you lack negative imagination, Am.”

“Or because you have too much. Now go!”

Akko took a deep breath and went up to the winners podium. Up there was Diana, standing next to Barbara rising the golden trophy above her head and Hannah softly smiling at her best friend doing so.

This was too much, she couldn’t do it. She had never done it before so how could she do it now, in such a public space. 

No, she had to do this, now. Am was counting on her, and she was wearing this uniform after all, so there was nothing to be afraid of anymore. With another deep breath she stepped up on the podium and wrapped her arms around Diana’s neck. “Congrats!” she said, and before Diana could answer she pressed her lips against Diana’s.

There were a few gasps and a few excited cheerings in the background, but she couldn’t hear any of them. She was too distracted by the soft lips touching her own, too hypnotized by the deep blue eyes so close to her own, too surprised by the hands that were now holding onto her waist.

After a few seconds that felt like a wonderful eternity Akko released Diana from her kiss.

“I love you.”

“A-Akko. I-I love you too.”

Diana’s face was red and Akko could feel the heat radiating off her girlfriend.

This was perfect, this was exactly where she wanted to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this story a few months ago, and I've been posting these chapters because I thought why keep them to myself. This was the last finished one. I will try to push out one more chapter which I have in a half-done state. After that I will have to freeze this fic because college is more important and in my free time I want to focus on my other stories.
> 
> And to everyone waiting for an update to Unexpected Friendship, that sadly is frozen as well. I promise I'll write for it again at some point but I currently just can't.


End file.
